Inciting
by Silverhare
Summary: Ducks do not court in the same way that humans do.


Usually, Fakir was content to let Ahiru swim by herself in the cool waters of the lake while he wrote on the dock, looking up every now and then to check on her and make sure she was all right and not being preyed on by anything. It was much too uncomfortably warm for that today, though, unusually so even for August. His inspiration seemed to dry up under the intense heat of the sun and the water looked more and more inviting as he continued to glance at it, so he finally gave in and set down his quill and papers, stripped down to his underwear, and slid off the dock and into the lake. The relief was instantaneous as the cool waters washed over him, and he let out a little sigh.

A short distance away, Ahiru heard the splash, and lifted her head to see Fakir easing himself into the water. A blush lit her face for a few seconds at the sight of him, and then she paddled herself over in his direction. Instead of coming up to his face, though, she circled around behind him and, with a well-placed nip, tugged out the tie that held his hair back before swimming swiftly away to a safe distance.

"Ahiruuuuu…" Fakir pretended to glare at her, but couldn't maintain it in the face of her poor attempt at looking innocent, and laughed. "Idiot. You never would've made it in the drama division - you're a terrible actress."

She opened her beak to quack angrily at him, but the action released the tie into the water, and so what came out instead was a series of horrified and apologetic quacks. She set about trying to retrieve it, but kept missing, and her increasingly panicked attempts just sent it floating further and further away. Nevertheless, she swam after it, determined not to lose it, and stopped only when she felt Fakir's hand on her back.

"Ahiru, it's fine." She turned to look at him, her eyes full of guilt, and he shook his head. "I have more at home. Don't worry about it." He rubbed her head, deliberately ruffling the feathers there and making them stand up in all directions around the giant one that always stuck straight up, just like the cowlick she'd had as a human girl. "There. Now we're even."

"Quack!"

"Fine, fine." Fakir laughed and smoothed them back down again. "Happy?"

"Quack." She laid her head on top of his hand and gave him a look that would've been a smile, if ducks could smile. Then she splashed him with her wing, and paddled off in a hurry again.

"Ahiru!" Fakir swam after her, laughing despite himself. She quacked back over her shoulder, and led him on a merry chase around the lake. They played in the water together for a good long while, and in the end really did come out about even when it came to who splashed who more, and which one caught the other more. When they finally tired themselves out, Fakir gave Ahiru another affectionate rub on her head, and swam back towards the dock as she rested, her eyes starting to fall.

It was when he was treading waist-deep water that he heard the strangest quack he had ever heard from her; in fact, it barely sounded like one at all. Turning, he saw Ahiru swimming as fast as she could towards him, and away from a drake that was pursuing her. He watched as she made threatening gestures over her shoulder at the other duck, and the sound that was coming out of her beak sounded less like quacking than it did like bleating, reminding him of a teacher at the Academy that had once been a goat during Drosselmeyer's story. When she reached him, she gave him what seemed like a pleading look. He responded by gathering her protectively against his chest with one arm, and used his other hand to send splashes at the drake while glaring fiercely at it. This finally convinced it to break off its pursuit of Ahiru, and it turned and swam away.

"You all right?" Ahiru responded by quacking happily and nuzzling her head against him, her feathers tickling his bare skin. Fakir frowned down at her. He had never seen that kind of behavior out of her before, and it concerned him because of its strangeness. He couldn't deny that it was a relief on some level to see her reject that drake, though - while he wouldn't begrudge her the chance to mate with another duck and have ducklings of her own if that was what she really wanted, it still made him feel vaguely uncomfortable inside. Rationally, he shouldn't be feeling what amounted to jealousy towards a _duck_, but then, when had his life ever been normal?

The deep, even sighs coming from her beak alerted him that she had fallen asleep. Fakir made his way back to the shore, and set Ahiru down on the soft grass while he retrieved his clothes and pulled them on again. He tucked his quill and papers under his arm, and slid the resealed ink bottle into his pocket before carefully picking Ahiru up again and cradling her in his arms for the walk home.

Later, after he'd showered and changed and tied his hair back again, Fakir pulled out one of his old duck books from his bookshelf. Ahiru was slumbering gently on his pillow, so he sat down beside her to read it. He soon found what he was looking for in the section on courtship behavior.

_"Inciting" is the most common and widespread form of love declaration among ducks. Female ducks use it first as a marriage proposal and later as a demonstrative affirmation of belonging to the drake. If, in the courtship ritual, the unattached drake to whom the inciting was addressed responds by chasing the indicated strange drake away, this is a sign that he is accepting the female's overtures and is willing to "become engaged"._

Fakir was _very_ grateful that Ahiru was asleep and thus couldn't see the blush that spread over his face at that.


End file.
